There’s a moment from my college days I remember more clearly than any midterm I ever took. I had stepped away from my bachelor’s degree at Penn State because I wanted to live a little. I’d grown up in the same town that I went to college and I just needed an extended reprieve, something…
Read MoreIs your online and professional continuing education unit looking for ways to improve job-market outcomes for graduates and alumni? Are you exploring strategies that better align your program portfolio with the skills business and industry leaders say they need both for new hires and for upskilling current employees? Recent employer data provides a clear signal that high-demand employees are ones with verified AI skills and practical experience. A 2025…
Read MoreAgentic AI is no longer merely an interactive tool we talk to; it is a colleague that acts for us. In a very active and highly competitive environment, AI has grown at breakneck speed. As with so many technologies, business and industry have moved far faster than academe to embrace the cost savings, capability expanding…
Read MoreAI in Higher Ed Will Come Slowly, Until All of a Sudden! Higher education is, by nature, very slow to change. So it is with embracing Artificial Intelligence (AI). Yet, when it finally comes, the changes will come in an avalanche. In discussions with faculty and staff, I have encountered some reluctance to take AI…
Read MoreEmbedding Industry Certifications into Bachelor’s Degrees: New Framework Now Available
Report Provides Guidance to Universities and Certification Bodies to Explore Certification-Degree Pathways December 1, 2020 – A new framework to support the development and scaling of certification-degree pathways has been published today by Workcred – an affiliate of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) – in partnership with the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU),…
Policy Matters | Joe Biden is President Elect – What Does that Mean for Higher Education Policy? (November 2020)
Major Updates Joe Biden is President Elect – What Does that Mean for Higher Education Policy? President-Elect Joe Biden will become the next President of the United States of America in January, so what does that mean for our field? For one, Jill Biden (who some of you will remember was a Keynote Speaker at…
How Blockchain Can Streamline Recordkeeping at Universities (OnlineEducation)
“What we see coming out of the pandemic is that the world is entering an environment for business and industry called the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which is a digitizing work. What that opens up for is that our delivery of documentation will change and will be delivered on the blockchain.” – Ray Schroeder, Senior Fellow…
What Does the Blockchain Mean for University Partnerships? (Helix Education)
COVID has accelerated the evolution and adoption of a lot of new technologies across higher ed. What has the pandemic done to the blockchain movement specifically? Ray Schroeder, associate vice chancellor of online learning at University of Illinois Springfield, and senior fellow at UPCEA, returns to the Enrollment Growth University show to remark on the acceleration…
The tagline for Convergence, Credential Innovation in Higher Education, raises two important questions: First, what kind of credentials are we talking about? Is the scope of credentials unlimited, blue sky, or confined to incremental changes on the margins of the status quo? And second, who is leading that innovation, and what do they need to…
Read MoreWe are pleased to share the foreword by UPCEA CEO Bob Hansen from the newly released Chief Online Learning Officers’ Guidebook: A Framework for Strategy and Practice in Higher Education. The guidebook, now available from Routledge in paperback, hardback, and eBook formats, provides a comprehensive framework for today’s online learning leaders. Learn more and purchase…
Read MoreIntroduction Higher education is at a crossroads, marked by declining public trust, diminishing enrollments, substantial budget cuts, and increased scrutiny on post-college outcomes. Recent research from UPCEA underscores growing skepticism about the value of traditional degrees, driving institutions and learners alike to explore innovative educational pathways and revenue models (UPCEA, 2025). To address these challenges…
Read MoreOnline programs are no longer a nice-to-have. They are essential, with many schools looking to online as their primary growth lever amid market headwinds. A strong portfolio of online programs can allow institutions to grow enrollment, reach new student populations, and future-proof their offerings. But building, launching, and sustaining a successful online program operation requires…
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